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Not the Stranger in the Street

In South Africa, violence against women has its own particular shape and colour, and the killing of Reeva Steenkamp made it absolutely clear that no woman, no matter how privileged, can presume to be safe in her own home. South Africa has extremely high levels of violent crime – this is what we are known for 20 years after the end of Apartheid. However, the most lethal threat that women face is not the stranger in the street. It is not an armed and dangerous intruder – that figment of a paranoid imagining that Oscar Pistorius apparently feared so abjectly. It is the man she loves and lives with; a woman is killed by her intimate partner every eight hours in South Africa.

Margie Orford, writing in The Independent. Read the full article here.

2 thoughts on “Not the Stranger in the Street”

Great article, Charlotte. thanks for sharing. It was very thought provoking. From my point of view over here in USA, while I agree that violence against women and children is a horrible consequence of some male dominance patterned thinking, the culture of violence does not just impact women and children. It is also a problem for minorities and poor people too. I totally agree that men must learn to think before they act. My problem is that I think that in a lot of cases,the men DID think before they acted, and chose to shoot anyway. After the fact they concoct some reason for why they did so.

The Stand Your Ground laws enacted in this country legalize the “Shoot first, rationalize later” mentality. “I felt threatened, so I shot him/her.”

And the fact that in the aftermath of many mass shootings in this country we STILL have no real gun control enacted in this country is a shame and a scandal. I wish I could say I did not understand this, but I understand all too well. Gun and ammunition manufacturers have LOTS of money and their influence is being exerted on our elected representatives.

Those are really alarming statistics.
I can’t say that domestic violence is taken seriously enough in this country; funnily enough, especially if the assaulted woman is educated and seen to live in luxury. It’s as if there is an expectation that such things only happen in rough districts amongst the “common” folk. I am sure that there are a lot of unreported assaults because of this attitude, which is sad, as it could prevent a murder further down the line.